K-22 Outdoorsman vs Masterpiece, Plus Range Report

[DARE]

I have a K-22 Outdoorsman that shipped in April 1937. Service stocks, 2 screw rear sight and Call Brilliant front sight. All numbers match, probably a 95% gun. Got it from my father, have had it about 30 years.
Recently acquired a K-22 Masterpiece that shipped in September 1949. Magna stocks, Tyler T-Grip, gold bead front sight and U shaped rear notch. Probably shipped with a patridge front and a square notch rear sight. Think a previous owner modified the front sight and replaced the rear blade. All numbers match except the grips, probably a 60% gun.
Thinking about the differences in the guns.
The Outdoorsman has service stocks, tapered barrel, Call Brilliant front sight, square notch rear sight, bright blue, long action, one line address, small left side logo, 36 oz. weight.
The Masterpiece has magna stocks, heavier barrel, barrel rib, micrometer rear sight, short action, wider hammer spur, 4 line address, large right side logo, matte blue, 38.5 oz. weight. Did I forget anything?
Took both guns to the range today. First time to shoot the Masterpiece, probably a year or so since I shot the Outdoorsman. Firing was at 7 yards, off hand, single action. CCI mini group ammo. Three 5 shot groups with the Outdoorsman measured .9, 1.03 and 1.03 inches. Two 5 shot groups with the Masterpiece measured 1.03 and 1.27 inches. Multiply by 3.57 to get 25 yard group size. The Outdoorsman averaged 3.53 inches and the Masterpiece 4.11 inches. The trigger pull was lighter on the Outdoorsman and I liked the sight picture better. My explanation for the difference in group size.
I'm 74 years old with lens transplants in both eyes. I have to wear reading glasses to see the sights. I shoot with the reading glasses under my shooting glasses. My explanation for the poor shooting.

Outdoorsman

Masterpiece, grips are from around 1959

Best group .9 inches. Think those are 1 inch squares on the target.

 

[paplinker]

I also shoot a closer group with my prewar guns than with my Post war Masterpieces. You would think the larger sights would mean better aim but not the case with me. I think it might be a aim small miss small situation.

I do find I do my best shooting with six o'clock hold.
I also am starting to not see well shooting inside. I may try reading glasses and see if that helps.

 

[Engine49guy]

Wow that's lot of details but after reading it twice my OCD noticed two or three things,
The big one is that the pre war K22 has the old long action , the post war has the new shorter cocking action and the new S&W " High Speed" hammer (aka the Fish hook hammer) and the new Anti backlash trigger.

Also, your K22 is the early post war narrow rib tapered barrel ( same profile as the Model 18), the rib was widened around 1955 IIRC to add weight so that it would match the K32 and K38 although S&W never called those wider rib K22's "Heavy barrels" even though they were slightly heavier. If you compare a 17-5 barrel it is the heaviest of the non underlug K22's with a thick wide rib and non tapered barrel like the Model 14, the heaviest is of course the full underlug 17-6 and up.
One other tidbit is that the pre war K22 had a fs base that was integral with the barrel with the fs blade pinned to the base where the post war K22 has an integral blade and base (ramp) that is pinned to the new raised barrel rib previously only found on the Reg Mag pre war barrel.
Ps...forgot to mention your pre war LERK where your post war K22 which had the LERK phased out fairly early.

 

[Toyman]

I had a postwar 22 Masterpiece shipped January 1955.I shot it about the same as my pre war 22 Outdoorsman. The 22 Outdoorsman had a better trigger than the post war. Letters thru SWHF showed the owner sent it back to S&W because he thought the trigger pull could be better.

 

[DARE]

Yeah, I said the Masterpiece had a "bull" barrel. Guess what I was noticing is that the Masterpiece has a larger diameter at the muzzle than the Outdoorsman. Thanks for the correction. Thanks for pointing out the other differences.

 

[Engine49guy]

I had a postwar 22 Masterpiece shipped January 1955.I shot it about the same as my pre war 22 Outdoorsman. The 22 Outdoorsman had a better trigger than the post war. Letters thru SWHF showed the owner sent it back to S&W because he thought the trigger pull could be better.

Wondering if you sanded those pre war Magnas to fit that pre war grip adapter or did the previous owner ?
The pre war grip adapter was designed to be used with the shorter service grips but I have seen one other pair modified that way,

 

[rct269]

I also shoot a closer group with my prewar guns than with my Post war Masterpieces. You would think the larger sights would mean better aim but not the case with me. I think it might be a aim small miss small situation.

I do find I do my best shooting with six o'clock hold.
I also am starting to not see well shooting inside. I may try reading glasses and see if that helps.

Your reading glasses may very well help with seeing your sights. Seeing the target is likely to be a different matter altogether!

I solved these problems by buying/shooting rifles with scope sights---worked like a charm!

Ralph Tremaine

 

[Babysitr]

My 1939 outdoorsman outshoots my 17 &18....go figure? plus, its cool!

 

[4K2022]

I don’t think it’s our imagination

 

[Nightowl]

Dare: I take my gun to the optometrist and he sets up a right lens to give me a sharp front sight and I get "safety" frames, that are much cheaper than designer ones. I set them up so that the non shooting eye has my standard correction and also have bifocal reading correction built in.
Works for me and that not that expensive.

 

[daddio202]

I agree wholeheartedly with the OP, but I find the masterpieces are more enjoyable to shoot alot. I shoot single action and the cocking of hammer can grow tedious after several cylinders in pre war guns. Also unless you have pre war magnas the grip feels much more comfortable in post war guns.

 

[rct269]

I don’t think it’s our imagination

It isn't!

There was a time when what one might call "extra care" was afforded S&W's target grade guns. They speak of it in their 1925 catalog---goes like this:

I'm going to start this in the middle and skip around so to speak, because it's fairly long and drawn out.

"They are, however, adjusted in the different way necessary to give the results desired in this special kind of shooting." (The first item of interest is easy to understand, because they spell it out. The single action trigger pull specification on target guns (any and all) is 3-4 lbs.---5-7 on fixed sight guns. As an aside, I don't know when this special treatment started---nor when it ended (if it ended), but I checked the S.A. trigger pull on 14 M&P targets in my collection of target guns. Those guns range in ship dates from 1902 to 1936. All 14 guns were EXACTLY the same (3.5 lbs). (It's of interest to note these 14 guns had two different types of actions---the monkey motion lever trigger control of the1902's and the rebound slide of the 1905's---and continuing.) They go on to say, "For these reasons a special type of trigger pull is desirable----not by any means simply a very light pull, but one having the peculiar quality termed "short and crisp" by shooters. This not only requires a special type of notch and trigger point, but requires a different adjustment of the working parts of the action."

Clear as mud, right?! Well they're selling guns here, not holding class, and the message I got was our target guns are better than theirs---and you should buy ours.

It may be those of our members who've been to S&W's armorer school can shed more light on all of this, but I'm thinking their training treats with making sure the guns work right rather than the particulars of how they're built.

Ralph Tremaine

 

[Toyman]

Wondering if you sanded those pre war Magnas to fit that pre war grip adapter or did the previous owner ?
The pre war grip adapter was designed to be used with the shorter service grips but I have seen one other pair modified that way,

I bought the grips adaptor with the reduced width magna grips included.

 

[stansdds]

I also shoot a closer group with my prewar guns than with my Post war Masterpieces. You would think the larger sights would mean better aim but not the case with me. I think it might be a aim small miss small situation.

I do find I do my best shooting with six o'clock hold.
I also am starting to not see well shooting inside. I may try reading glasses and see if that helps.

Smaller width sights do make precision aiming easier, but they are harder for older eyes to focus and not particularly good for quick sight pickup when you need to quickly get the firearm into action.